The Vasari Emperor
by ColdYeti
Summary: Many people have asked themselves; what would happen if the Vasari - who have better technology - were to be led by a human? Not just any human, but a human with the tactical mindset required to gain an edge in this war? Most people have answered that this is impossible, the Vasari would never accept a human emperor. Then they dismiss the question. However, nothing is impossible.
1. Chapter 1

**Pirates**

"Captain, someone's trying to hail us on the comms. Its an interplanetary transmission!"

There was a hint of confusion in the Governor's voice. He, a pirate like the rest of the inhabitants of Kit-Kunis, was not often contacted by other empires. Especially not directly through a video call. This was odd. But so far the whole day had been odd... Ships had been taking weird routes and the Captain was still angry.

"Put it through Gov." came the Captain's gravelly voice.

The Governor – second in command of the entire planetoid – did as he was told. As pirates the colony's leadership structure was loose and disorganised, but where rules were clear only a suicidal person would cross them.

A familiar face appeared on the screen; Antares. He was a powerful emperor in his own right, and his empire had been making news recently all across the system. In only a year he had conquered a vast swath of the solar system and blockaded the star, effectively defending against external attack. And external aid for the few remaining empires still trapped in the system. He was in fact a human, which was strange considering he ruled over a faction of Vasari Loyalists. The aliens typically disliked humans, but last time anyone had checked the planets under his rule were perfectly happy and content to be ruled by a human. The Captain – the Pirate's main tactician and central ruler – knew all of this, and that immediately put a scowl on his face as he greeted the dangerous emperor.

"Antares, what can we do for you?"

Antares grinned his infamously manic grin and replied;

"I have a proposition for you, I thought you might be interested?"

Thus far he was being polite, which was good the governor thought to himself... normally the Captain and the Emperor would end up arguing about terms and conditions or payment or something. It really didn't seem to matter what, they just really didn't get along. Unfortunately, that was where the politeness ended;

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR PROPOSITIONS YOU MADMAN!" Yelled the Captain. Yep, he was definitely still angry, his cousin had led a raid recently into TEC territory on Antares' orders. Well paid orders, but no amount of pay could bring back the dead. The raid had been ambushed by four capital ships and there had been no survivors bar three – who had then been publicly executed by the TEC. One of those had been his cousin. The madman on the end of the outburst was a personal insult to Antares. The man was technically a 'successful psychopath', which made him almost completely emotionless and therefore actually by definition saner than anyone else around. It also made him remorseless and brutal – which was part of how he had been so successful. That and the fact that he thought entirely in logic, due to being incapable of emotional or irrational thought. The battlefield was but a trivial game to him and he had won every combat engagement he had ever entered. Or so the legends claimed. Certainly nobody could find an example of where he had lost a battle. Excluding the one where his forces sacrificed a few frigates in a skirmish in order to act as a diversion so that the main force could flank around and destroy the Prophets of Zei's Capital Planet... which didn't really count as a loss.

"That's fine, do as you wish." came the calm reply from the Emperor. That was even odder, normally the Captain started the verbal spats only to be confronted by a wall of well-worded insults designed to hurt him on topics he was sensitive about. The shocked silence lasted for all of 3 seconds before the Captain all but blurted out;

"What?" He took a deep breath, then reconsidered and continued "What kind of contract is this then? Because I refuse to believe that you're letting me off out of compassion..."

Both the Governor and the Captain smelled a rat; the Emperor was usually nothing if not insistent.

Silence.

Finally the Captain bit the proffered hook;

"Ok, go on then. What's this proposition of yours then?"

"Oh, nothing much. I was just going to ask if you'd be interested in surrendering. That's all." Came the calm and perfectly collected reply from Antares. It took a moment for the words to sink in...

That was when the Captain burst out laughing. It was common knowledge that the Captain had fortified the gravity well around Kit-Kunis so well that it had once destroyed an enemy titan with only minor losses to the pirates. It was also common knowledge that Antares specialised in defensive tactics and preferred to only make an aggressive move when he could be confident in a victory for his empire. For two defensive forces to go to war would mean a stand off that would eventually dissolve into negotiations. If anything the pirates were actually slightly better equipped for aggression than the fledgling empire...

The Captain was about to reply – probably with some form of insult – when he was interrupted by an ear-splittingly loud crash. The entire station shook – it reminded the governor of earthquakes he had experienced when visiting larger planets with tectonic processes. Sirens immediately began to wail in the distance and the portholes were filled with an orange glow for a second. Then there was silence, except for the distant wails of sirens nothing moved. Kit-Kunis was a planetoid which had had an entire pirate colony grafted onto it. It housed several billion pirates in total and most of it was not particularly stable. The control room that both the Governor and the Captain currently occupied was situated near the top of the colony that was mounted around the Northern Polar regions of the planetoid. Kit-Kunis had often been jokingly referred to as the 'Space Tortuga' after the notorious pirate citadel in the Golden Age of piracy on the human homeworld. It looked fairly similar in shape, except that Kit-Kunis towered several kilometers higher than any homeworld citadel ever had. The colony was one of four that were positioned on the planetoid's surface. Twelve seconds ago it had been one of five.

After the initial shock the Captain was the first to get his wits about him.

"DAMAGE REPORT!?" he screamed into the nearest comm device. "Get me a damage report this bloody Instant!"

That must have been an interplanetary projectile the Governor realised; and while it was technically possible that any number of vengeful empires could have sent it... He suspected that the culprit was the man staring impassively at the chaotic proceedings from the screen. Except he wasn't impassive. A slight grin, or perhaps more of a smirk, was visible on his face. That was when the Captain reached the same conclusion.

"YOU?!" he growled at the screen, "You are responsible for this?!"

"Of course."

"Why? We're supposed to be allies you maniac!"

The Governor knew how this would end; A kostura cannon had been fired somewhere – probably within the system – at the pirate base. It would take a full month before it was ready to fire again. But its first shot had just obliterated one fifth of Kit-Kunis. Somewhere near a billion people had just died, centuries of infrastructure and work had just been destroyed. In a way it made him sad, but he realised he was still in shock. It would sink in soon and then he would be sad and depressive for a long time. Perhaps even until the next warhead hit and killed another billion people... the Captain was still yelling at the screen, like that was going to achieve anything, when Antares finally replied;

"You do realise that was the warning shot, don't you?"

Silence again.

"You mean you will hit us again next month?" Queried the Governor, almost pleading for his darkest fears not to be true. If the madman had two cannons at his disposal they were in real trouble. Two fifths of the colony would be dead before they could even attempt to evacuate...

"No." replied Antares, still perfectly calm and composed, "Check your PSIDAR, I'll have the other warheads de-cloaked now."

Well, that explains how nobody detected the approach of a warhead the size of a small capital ship through space... thought the Governor as he rushed over to the room's PSIDAR panel. He turned it on. It was blank. Then a dot appeared on it. The panel pinged softly to announce the detection.

Scanning...

Identifying...

The sigil denoting a kostura warhead appeared on the screen. Shit...

He had turned and was about to tell the captain when he stopped dead in his tracks. He tried to tell himslef that he hadn't just heard what he thought he had just heard... Then it came a second time;

Ping.

The world seemed to fall away as understanding hit him with a force not dissimilar to the one that had just been used to kill a billion people...

He turned back tot he PSIDAR panel, dreading what he would see...

Sure enough; two new sigils denoting additional Kostura warheads were present on the screen. Four warheads... the mind boggled. That was-

Ping.

Five warheads?!

Ping.

Six warh-

Ping.

Ping.

Ping.

The Governor felt the world dropping out from under his feet. Metaphorically at this point. But when those warheads arrived that feeling would become literal...

He didn't even need to speak as he turned to the Captain. He saw the colour drain from the Captain's face, just as it had from his seconds earlier. The realisation had sunk in; they were doomed.

"What are your terms?" Demanded the Captain, turning back to the screen on the wall.

Antares merely smirked at him, "I thought you said you had had enough of my propositions?"

"I've changed my mind!" yelled the Captain, desperation becoming tangible in his voice.

"Prep the evacuation teams, we need to get out of this cursed system." He said quietly over his shoulder to the Governor. It was completely unnecessary since the Governor was already typing the commands into another console at the back of the room. Technically the entire pirate base could be split off into segments, attached to thrusters and sub-light engines and could be towed by the larger pirate ships in the event of an emergency... but with one fifth of the colony dust and debris and shock wave damage to all surviving infrastructure and ships that might be harder to organise than the Captain had intended when he had designed it.

"Five minutes to catastrophic impact!" rang out the computer's voice, the same voice being broadcast throughout the entire base... probably causing panic already.

"You may have changed your mind, but I'm afraid my offer no longer stands." Came the by-now infuriatingly calm voice of the Vasari Emperor.

"But I-" Started the Captain, only to be cut off by Antares' words.

"Goodbye Aaron, it was nice doing business with you. It's rather a shame you are no longer beneficial to my cause."

With that the screen went black. Both the Governor and the Captain stared at in shock for a second before the Governor typed the last few lines and sent the orders to the computer system that ran the base. The evacuation was beginning, but they would never all make it in time.

He turned to the Captain – no, he turned to Aaron he reminded himself. He had never known his real name before and it would be good to remember it – and approached him slowly. The poor man was just standing there. Still frozen by the abruptness of it all. They were going to die unless they got to one of the ships though, so he had to move.

"Captain?" He tried... "CAPTAIN?!" The second one seemed to have no more effect than the first... Finally, "Aaron!"

At that the Captain turned, the grim realisation slowly making its way into his features...

Both men turned and headed for the door.

Ping.

The Governor turned, curious, and ran back to the PSIDAR panel. It showed several capital ships moving into the gravity wells of the two adjacent planets.

He stared at the panel in confusion. A kostura warhead created a phase stabiliser node on impact and it was common knowledge that Antares used phase stabilises at every opportunity because of the advantage that they gave him. Surely if he planned to send ships he would have sent them directly to the node created by the first warhead? But why would he even want to send his forces to this doomed planetoid? The shock waves would destroy everything in the gravity well with the debris they carried with them and the infrared energy wave they emitted would be enough to reduce any surviving ships to molten slag...

The Captain appeared at his shoulder, also looking at the panel.

"This doesn't make any sense..." the Governor managed.

Then the Captain's face got even paler.

"You fool..." he said. "Those two planets are the only places with phase lanes to here, don't you see?"

"I know that," the Governor said indignantly "but-..."

Then the realisation hit: Antares had no intention of ordering his forces into the gravity well of Kit-Kunis... he intended to set up a blockade to kill those who tried to escape. After all... Antares specialised in defensive tactics... and they had less than three minutes to get out... and then another half-hour in phase space. It wouldn't take Antares that long to construct some basic defences... which would be all he would need to destroy a crippled evacuation fleet and the few combat ships that hadn't been crippled by the first impact... and they had only two routes to take.

"He has played his cards well." the Captain conceded. "We're screwed."

"Surely we should at least try to run the blockade?" The Governor queried. He had little hope for their success... he had seen what had happened to a fully armed military raid that had attempted to run a blockade Antares had set up many months prior before they had forged an alliance with the psychopathic Emperor. There had only been debris. No survivors, the ships hadn't even lasted long enough to launch the escape pods...

The heavy door to the room opened and the Captain's security detail – 6 of the toughest gunslingers he had ever known – entered the room.

"We have to get you out of here sir. We have a ship prepared but we don't have much time."

With that the leader took hold of the still-stunned Captain's arm and all but dragged him out the door, the Governor joined the others as they ran behind to keep up.

Moments later they all squeezed into the fast elevator and the Governor prepared himself for the sudden drop as it fired itself towards the surface of the planetoid. The inertia shields activated and then the world became a blur.

Seconds later the doors opened and they all piled out into the docking bay feeling slightly nauseous. The rest of the Captain's security detail had somehow got their hands on a small corvette class ship... fast but not even remotely durable. It would have to do...

The ship itself was probably only six or seven hundred meters wide and so it was built with much more cramped infrastructure. They didn't wait to climb up the ladders in turn, so no sooner had the entire party gotten in through the airlock than the engine powered up and the ship shot out of the docks.

They made it to the edge of the gravity well in less than a minute. The Governor had just been able to get to a seat near a porthole and strap himself in when there was a flash. He imagined the sound of the second impact would be much the same as the first, but this time the vacuum of space prevented him from hearing it. The Corvette's shields were down from the heat wave, that had been the flash he'd seen, and the ship appeared mostly intact. Now just to hope they could escape the gravity well before the debris hit...

Then there was a feeling like he was being stretched in one direction impossibly fast and then nothing but the hum of the phase drive. They were away. It would be a lie to say that they were safe though, far from it in fact. Antares would almost certainly have set up a secure blockade and even if he hadn't the fighter compliment of the capital ships he'd seen would be perfectly adequate to destroy this little ship long before it got halfway across the gravity well...

That's when he had an idea.


	2. A Fatal Gamble

**A Fatal Gamble**

The Governor had an idea, and it was actually surprisingly good. The Captain, Aaron – he now knew, had given him the position of Governor specifically because of his creativity. There was only one problem; it was a gamble. Not only was it a gamble, but it was a gamble that could end only four ways... A long nap in stasis for a few hundred years, instantaneous and yet infinitely long lasting and painful death, a instantaneous and painless death **or** success...

Considering that three of the four outcomes were devastatingly negative... he doubted it would get approval...

The Governor cast a glance over at Aaron who was sitting with his hands in his lap, staring blankly into space. Still in shock by the look of it... who wouldn't be after going through what they had? Especially as it was so rapid and brutal. To have everything you had worked for for most of your life torn away in less than an hour... just... gone.

Taking this into consideration, the Governor did not ask permission to enact his risky idea. He simply got up and left, as if he was answering the call of nature. The Captain didn't even notice his exit as he was still staring intently at empty space with wide eyes...

The corvette class ship wasn't large, but the Governor still found the time to worry about everything as he made his way to the bridge.

Should he put the idea through to the guards? Or would he be better off disabling them and apologising afterwards? If there was an afterwards...

Could he do it? He knew the coordinates... but he did not know their current approach vector or coordinates, so any attempt to steer would be haphazard at best, especially factoring in that phase space distortions would undoubtedly effect the navigation computer...

He could not afford to rely on the computer... He would have to manually steer the ship and pray to any and all Gods that might be out there to listen in and bless him with a small nation's-worth of luck...

As he approached the bridge the possibilities spun his head. He took two deep breaths to calm himself and then stepped onto the bridge...

* * *

Antares sat in the command chair that he affectionately called 'the throne' aboard the colossal Vorastra Titan; Ragnarok. His face was visible only by the ominous orange glow of the holographic screens and the lights on the assorted controls he had hovering at his disposal.

His personal control chamber was separated from the main bridge, sitting in the center of it but surrounded by excess armour plating that made it virtually impenetrable to any boarding crew. He was normally the only person in it save a guard who occasionally entered to check he wasn't over-exerting himself.

The problem was, while the original bridge of the Ragnarok was designed for piloting the titan, it was also designed to be run by an enormous crew of several hundred highly trained officers. That was great because it meant that even if a boarding crew somehow got in and massacred half the bridge staff the ship could still function... it was however, not as fast as Antares would have liked.

From 'the throne' Antares had a direct neural link to the whole Titan. He could monitor any system, or every system should he so choose. He could simultaneously manoeuvre and engage in combat of every sort all the way from firing the Maw or the pulse beam cannons down to targeting individual strike craft with the point defence weapons. What this meant, was that the Ragarnok was not only the best armed ship of any class currently in existence, it was also more manoeuvrable and it could react at the speed of thought instead of the usual plodding reactions of a titan that was crewed by thousands of operators all of whom needed to coordinate their efforts and communicate before anything could happen...

This reaction speed was what had once allowed him to win a two versus one titan battle where the Ragnarok was the lone Titan. It was also what had allowed him to destroy an entire pirate raid by micro phase jumping to a position directly in front of the arriving raid and activating the Ragnarok's Maw ability to dispatch all but three of the pirate frigates in the space of a few seconds.

Antares did have a colossal raw IQ – something nearing 500 – as a result of a combination of naturally high IQ, psychopathy, Vasari augments AND psionic mind enhancing augments using technology stolen from the Advent. Unfortunately, he was only human. He could, and sometimes did, over-exert himself and collapse – usually with very minor consequences as the normal crew were easily able to clean up the few survivors as soon as they were granted control of the ship.

That was why the guard came in to check up on him. He had on one occasion rendered himself unconscious during a battle moments before a reinforcing enemy fleet had entered the gravity well... The titan had continued to slug out punishment, successfully destroying the entire threat and then drifting aimlessly until the entire titan ploughed into the shattered moon they had been fighting around... due to the augments Antares- or rather Antares' augments - had continued to operate the ship in his unconscious state... but as soon as his subconscious ran out of enemies to destroy it released control of the ship and awaited a new goal from the brain – a goal it did not receive. Unfortunately, stopping the titan from being drawn in by the gentle gravity of the shattered moon was a goal. One that Antares' subconscious did not act upon.

The guard was a veteran Vasari warrior. Well, officially at least. He was actually a highly trained assassin who ran 'personal' errands for his psychopathic master. He had no name – having shed it along with all relation to anyone during his initiation. He technically had no rank either, but 'friend of Antares' was a rank of its own accord and he had access to anything and everything his master did.

On this particular occasion the guard was on an assignment, which conveniently meant he was not there to notice the two human females clad in the loose fitting robes of Advent assassins step from the shadows. He was also not needed.

The eldest – probably no more than 30 years old - human female was still several meters from the throne when Antares swivelled round to face her. She froze in shock, she had been psionically masking her footsteps, her breathing, she had even been using her powers to contain any scent that might come from her body incase there was an animal present. How had he become aware of her?

That was when the second woman moved; stabbing the eldest in the back of the skull with a vicious looking blade.

The pale orange glow that glazed over the younger woman's eyes was clearly visible from across the room, despite the fact that the rest of her body seemed almost cloaked in darkness. Antares sighed audibly, before releasing control of the second assassin. With a gasp she fell to the floor to lie beside her now-dead comrade. The younger woman, however, was not dead. In fact, she was just regaining control of her own mind... and she was very confused; how did a human who ruled over the Vasari have the power to take control of her – a powerful psionic assassin – with such ease?!

* * *

She was answered a second later;

 **You and I are the same, that is how.**

After a second she realised: He had not spoken verbally! And then some sort of aura became perceivable in the room... he was psionically sensitive! Well no wonder he noticed the two assassins who were probably giving off enough of a psionic signature through use of all of their cloaking!

She called out to the Unity, to warn them of this threat.

Nothing.

She sent out a sensory pulse.

Nothing... and then it pinged back to her. Something had reflected her sensory pulse? Then understanding came; the aura she felt emanating from the Emperor was not just for intimidation – although it served that purpose well enough – its primary purpose was to psionically isolate the area around them. She could no longer rely on her 'family'. Her Unity. She felt the shivers on her spine at the same time as she felt the aura wrap closely around her, invading her mind again. She tried to prepare herself to resist it.

She desperately flung out a powerful psionic attack that visibly moved the hovering screens, even causing the holographic projections to blink out for a second. She paused, she had honestly not expected that to work?

She sprang to her feet, already lifting the poisoned blades from her belt with her mind and preparing to fling them. She turned to face him, ready to re-target when he inevitably dodged to the side...

She paused. He was just sitting there? Surely he must know that she intended to kill him?

 **Do you really?**

His voice... she couldn't quite place it... something about it was... almost familiar? Familiar and comforting... comforting like the feeling of a warm fireplace on a cold night...

She jerked back to reality. Where had that thought come from?! She had never sat by a fireplace. The Unity simply used lesser acolytes to vibrate the atoms in the air to generate heat when needed...

 **I did not know that before now; thank you.**

Did he just thank her? He just thanked an assassin who's sole intention was to end his existence for a tiny tidbit of information? Perhaps he wasn't so much an enemy as misunderstood?

Did that really matter? Her mission was to kill him, not to judge him?

 **But is an assassin not also her victim's final judge? Is not all such work centered around judgement?**

She thought for a moment; he did have a point...

Wait. Was she actually debating philosophy with her intended victim?! What had he hit her with to do that to her?

 **What makes you think I did this? You'd be surprised what people can realise when they actually stop and think for themselves for a moment...**

"You're clearly manipulating my thoughts! Get out of my head!" She half-screamed at him. A very odd thing for a member of the Advent to say to anyone under normal circumstances...

She looked up, her outburst seemed to have changed nothing; he was still sitting in his throne smiling at her... it was a distinctly predatory smile.

She saw her opportunity. Probably her only opportunity.. and she took it.

With all the psionic force she could muster, amplified exponentially by her myriad of implants and her rage at having been forced to murder her sister in arms; she flung the poisoned blades at him. All of them.

The blades seemed on course, she noticed a fractional deviation and corrected it immediately. He wasn't even trying to deflect the-

And then the blades stopped in the air. They didn't decelerate, they simply stopped. In an instant. She pushed with all her mind, willing the blades to move forwards. To at least draw blood. Because the poison that coated them was strong enough to be used against many of the universe's larger animals too...

The blades were not going anywhere. It was as if they were suspended by a force stronger than the entire Unity!

 **You do realise you can't kill me, don't you?**

The effort of trying to force the blades forward was taking is toll on her, her implants were straining. One near her hypothalamus was already overheating from the strain...

 **So stop?**

She didn't know why, but she did. She let go of the blades. And in that instant she let go of everything. By that simple act she had betrayed the Unity, she had one mission and she was choosing not to do it for reasons she did not understand... Her 'family' would never take her back... there was nothing she could do to redeem herself for this betrayal except to kill him.

 **Well, why don't you allow me to explain?**

"You're not going to kill me?"

 **No. I just said, I'm going to explain.**

"And then you're going to kill me?" She queried, not even trying to hide the disbelief in her voice.

 **Only if you leave me no choice.**

"I'm an Advent assassin, how is there any choice that allows you to not kill me?" She asked, half-willing him to provide a substantial answer to alleviate her fears...

 **There is always a choice – in everything.** Was his only response, spoken in those soft... comforting tones... almost, but not quite, as if he genuinely understood.

And while the seeming contradiction in his last two statements did nothing to settle her nerves, she decided to trust him. And she placed her physical weapons on the ground and approached him. He in turn released her blades, letting them clatter to the ground as he activated a hover chair for her to sit in.

* * *

The Governor had reached the bridge, and his nerves were already in shreds. So much so, that when the bodyguard who was guarding the pilot asked him what he wanted he almost collapsed. The stress of circumventing the normal chain of command was bad enough, then trying to tell a crew who were not technically loyal to him that they were going to have to trust him with their lives... combined with the lack of self confidence that lurked over him since all of twenty minutes ago when he had had his last look at his beloved Kit-Kunis and he had finally understood that he, and all of the pirates, were not 'a force to be reckoned with' but merely a pawn in the games of the greater empires that dominated this system.

The guard, being well trained, promptly helped him to a seat and tried to help the literally shaking governor get his wits about him. He was so well trained that he did all of this without releasing his weapon or letting the doorway completely out of his sight. He had personally guarded the Governor and the Captain through many a hazardous time, including their ascension to those ranks, but he was still loyal to the Captain first and foremost – and pirates were, if anything, devious. He did like the Governor, and to some extent he trusted the man, it was simply his training that caused him to put on hand on his hip holster.

Alas, the Governor, being a keen observer, noticed this and it did exactly nothing to reinforce his confidence. The end result was that when the guard finally tired of trying to figure out what was wrong and politely but firmly told him to 'spill the beans' he practically managed to spew his plan, his concerns, the statistical odds he had calculated, the coordinates and half his life history by the time the guards finally told him to 'shut up' 'cuz it will all be ok'. Which he didn't believe for one instant.

Silence ensued. The Governor was sitting in a state of mind commonly found in men about to die and was too nervous to speak having worried himself half to death on the way up, the guards on the other hand were sharing glances. One glanced at the pilot in confusion; presumably querying if he had understood any of what the panic-stricken Governor had just blurted out. The pilot glanced out of the windscreen, into the seemingly never ending distortions of phase space, then at the various instruments and consoles, then back out into space, then finally back to the other three guards and gave the slightest nod. The governor of course, noticed this and finally succeed in calming himself - knowing that if they had chosen to execute him he would have seen a shake of the head or a thumbs down.

After a few more seconds of contemplation the pilot turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"Do we have time to ask the Captain?"

"Probably, but by my calculations you have around 3 minutes to ask, explain and get approval before getting back to here."

The Governor knew it was a lie even as he said it, but while some of the guards may have suspected they did not question. On got up and led him to the secured hatch in the center of the bridge that led down tot he navigation computers. He entered the necessary codes, all three of them, and then hauled the hatch open with a colossal grunt he lifted the huge armour plated and magnetically shielded hatch all by himself... probably only due to the low gravity as such a weight would have taken 3 or 4 men or a winch to lift in Kit-Kunis' gravity.

"Help yourself Gov." was all the confirmation he received from the four guards, on of whom was still staring thoughtfully out into space.

The Governor almost asked if they were sure, but he knew better than to do so; time was of the essence. He lowered himself down into the cramped space that was designed to allow one maintenance engineer access to the nav computers in the rare event of an emergency.

With trembling fingers he opened the access console he knew controlled the phase drive and he began to type feverishly. His hands blurred over the keypad as if his life depended on it.

Come to think of it; his life did depend on it.

Within about a minute he was done, he checked his work once. Then to be safe he checked it again, not entirely satisfied with his first check. Then he checked it again. He was most of the way through his seventh check when one of the guards called down to tell him that the twelve minutes he had estimated in his detail blurting was almost up, so with a deep sigh he saved his work, loaded it into the mainframe and climbed out of the hatch.

"What next Gov?" Asked one of the guards.

"Now? Now we pray to anybody that will listen for luck, because we will need as much of it as we can get." he replied

After a few moments of silence the pilot piped up;

"Are ya religious man Gov?"

"No. But if this works I'll give it some serious consideration my friend..."

Now that the panic was over and their destiny was in fortune's hands, the Governor slumped into the proffered seat and passed out before he managed to get comfortable. Since there was nothing he could do any more and he had been thoroughly exhausted by his nervousness he didn't even wake up for the entrance of the Captain who entered the bridge, proffered exactly the same idea he just had and was met with the blunt answer of "The Gov just did exactly that, thanks to him we did it in time too, boss. Thank him when he wakes up."

The Governor missed the look of stunned surprise on Aaron's face, and he missed the offhand comment that Aaron made as he stalked out of the bridge to find somewhere to sleep. Had he heard the comment it might have brought back memories of a long time ago... a long long time ago when the Captain regularly used to say to himself "Great minds think alike."


	3. Chapter 3 - Feron Station

**Feron Station**

Antares was still in conversation with the younger assassin when the captain of the Ragarnok entered to inform him of an interesting discovery; a small corvette class pirate ship - that had been expected to hit their blockade – had just zoomed past the gravity well still in phase space.

The presence of a female human – clearly identifiable as an Advent assassin but clearly engaged in friendly conversation with the Emperor – did little to perturb him. The captain had seen some weird things while serving under Antares, and a pacified assassin was actually not that weird considering he bore daily witness to a single man controlling an entire titan.

Antares merely brought up a holographic map and calculated the nearby planets the ship could conceivably reach based on its new trajectory and then redirected forces accordingly. He owned every single planet they could possibly get to and his forces would be there well before the irritating little corvette, so he dismissed the captain and returned to the conversation at hand.

* * *

When the Governor awoke the Captain was still on the bridge. The Governor was about to ask how much trouble he was in when Aaron noticed he was awake and deftly snatched the bottle he had placed near the chair before coming over to share a celebratory thanks-for-saving-our-lives drink. As the Captain praised his open mindedness and creativity, and then poured the whole crew cups of that particular variety of rum he always carried, the Governor traced back over the events that had just transpired in his mind. He had successfully redirected the corvette class ship in phase space to a new location based on a set of coordinates and times that had been given to him a long time ago by a survivor he had once had to interrogate. The poor man had been half dead already due to a long list of things like dehydration, exposure, starvation and exhaustion but he would have been savable were it not for the humongous radiation counts coming from his body. He had received several times the lethal dosage of radiation, as had the entire place he had come from. From what the Governor had deduced the location had been moving and had – in the course of its normal orbit – somehow taken multiple accidental direct hits from a series of Novalith warheads.

Coming out of phase space at Feron Station was obviously risky. He knew for a fact that the station was still out there, and he knew for a fact that it was still holding roughly to the course he had once helped program into it. He also knew that it had been renovated and had received a completely new defence network some time after he had left – but only as he had been invited to come and enter his details and scans of his eyes and fingerprints. Alas he had never done so; which meant that there was a fair chance they were going to die anyway.

The problem was that they could not just make port at any normal planet; Antares controlled them all and he could get ships there through phase stabilisers well in advance of their arrival – in fact he probably already had. There was one pirate base that they could, possibly, just have steered themselves to... but based on the fact that it had gone dark the Governor had the good sense to assume Antares had levelled the place. So the Governor was using a little trick; they were not headed for a normal planet. Technically they weren't headed for a planet at all, but rather a colossal Space station in orbit around the star. A derelict space station the size of a small planetoid; Feron Station.

Feron station had, in its glory days, served as a hub for almost every pirate in the solar system in one way or another. It had also technically aided many local planetary militia who had agreed to pay a handsome fee for the opportunity to deliver a raid to some newly conquered planet in order to harass some empire or other for decimating their homeworld. Fortunately, all such journeys had been conducted by using a satellite of the station. A satellite which consisted mostly of computers for calculating potential phase lanes and adjusting the data in the ship's nav computers on a nanosecond by nanosecond basis. This satellite had unfortunately been held in orbit through its own complicated system of engines and computers managing manoeuvring thrusters, it did not have any direct human control - which meant that when it received a mysteriously direct hit from a Novalith warhead it had perished almost completely and swerved out of orbit before colliding with the star in the center of the system.

Allegedly it had in fact swiped a sizeable chunk out of another empire's capital planet along the way, effectively rendering it uninhabitable. Or at least, that was the explanation for how the entirety of the local TEC Loyalist's fleet had been recalled only to re-emerge into a war zone as Antares' forces had slaughtered their way through the other TEC owned planets in the system... ...leaving them without even a single planet and facing a much larger and better prepared fleet that had already taken up defensive positions and constructed an Orkulus Starbase.

What that meant was; the main Station was still in orbit around the star, being held there by the systems he had helped design. But nobody else could get to it because only a handful of people in the system knew how to access the actual station without the help of the satellite, and almost all of those people were dead – and the ones who were alive weren't mad enough to attempt a blind jump into Feron Station.

Essentially they finally had a safe landing zone. There were only a few problems: the Station was moving incredibly fast, there was a chance it may have deviated from its course and bearing in mind the speed and comparatively small size of the station the odds of successfully entering its miniscule gravity well were slim at best. If they succeeded then they would arrive at the deserted station, scavenge for supplies and hopefully get a transmitter working and everything would be okay. If they did not succeed they would miss it and either plough into one of the few planets further out – which were undoubtedly occupied by Antares forces – or miss everything and shoot off into open space... meaning they would run out of power long before they even came close to another star... ...and die.

The Governor glanced at his holographic stopwatch and swore profusely; they had only two minutes left till they either lived or died. He would have liked more time to prepare...

* * *

The young woman, Iridana of the Shadow's Hand, sat talking to Antares about the styles of brainwashing the Advent used on those members who were not being directly controlled when she saw a flash of realisation on the Emperor's face.

"Excuse me for a moment; we may have a problem..." was all he said as he turned to his consoles and brought up the holographic star map again. She moved her hover chair closer so that she could see better and he gave her a warm smile as she appeared next to him. He seemed genuinely friendly and in the course of their conversation she had found him to be both polite and pleasant as well as quite well spoken. He spoke the common tongue used by all factions – the crude amalgamation of several languages that formed a graceless cacophony that was roughly understood by all but he also spoke fluent Vasari and he was fluent in both the main languages of the Advent and spoke several of the human dialects used by the assorted TEC groups.

The problem, as it appeared on the map, was the same apparently troublesome Pirate corvette. The holomap was projecting Antares' calculations of its course between planets. What puzzled Iridana was the symbol on the map denoting something large, spherical and very fast moving. That something looked to be on a precise collision course with the Pirate corvette.

"Perhaps whatever that is will hit the pirate ship?" She queried. After all, she was an assassin who had just tried to kill an emperor – whether she left this room alive or not did not hinge on her knowing one more military secret.

"Unfortunately I rather suspect they actually intend to land on it..." Antares concluded.

"Land on it? What is it?"

"That, my dear, is one of this systems best and worst kept secrets; that is Feron Station."

* * *

30...

28...

26...

24...

22...

"If we survive this Gov we're all buying you drinks for as long as you want." vouched one guard.

18...

"Sure. Whatever, lets deal with that if we survive." Was the Governor's only response. Other than that and the hum of the phase space engines the bridge was silent. Silent with anticipation.

14...

12...

10...

"What are the odds of this Gov?"

"Not good to near impossible. Take your pick."

6...

5...

4... The Governor closed his eyes, in his mind the likely scenario of sudden death played out in a million and one different ways...

3... the entire crew was on the bridge, all of them crammed into the tiny space. Several of them were holding their breath or praying to an interesting range of deities...

2...

1...

The computerised countdown went silent for an agonising amount of time... then, with a sound like shearing steel combined with a crash so loud no-one heard it; the corvette crashed.

* * *

"Feron Station?" She queried "I thought Feron Station was a myth?"

"You were meant to."

"But if its real why has no-one made contact with it in so long? None of the stories I have heard had anything to say about it prior to about two years ago..."

"That's because I got fed up of it two years ago. That and I had need of it."

"You had need of... wait, so its true? All of the stories are true?"

"Well, I doubt any of the stories are exactly true... but some of them are more accurate than others." Antares said. "You see, it is true that I was involved in the... ah... misdirection of several Novalith Warheads that were supposed to hit my Capital planet... and it is true that the Satellite did move of its own accord to get onto the course that led it to hit that rather inconvenient planet... It is not however true that I; single-handedly killed every man on Feron station with a blunt spoon before the first impact, nor did I use dark magic, nor did I sacrifice it to appease whatever Dark God the TEC think I worship – although I really do want to learn more about the origins of that strange rumour..."

"So you did actually redirect multiple Novalith warheads using only your psionic capabilities?!" she interrupted.

"No no no, my psionic capabilities – while significant – are not that impressive. I could perhaps defeat your Reverend Mother in one on one combat, but no more than that. I was obliged to use a much more ancient art; misleading information."

"You lied to the TEC?"

"No. I mislead their computers. It is fascinating how a group so technologically illiterate seems content to rely so heavily on computers..."

"You hacked multiple Novalith Cannons?" She asked incredulously.

"No, while I do have the capabilities that would have taken far too long. I merely had my spies input the data I needed into the computers. Its not like the TEC ever check their databases. That way the Cannons fired on schedule and in such a way that they believed they were in fact targeting my planets. Except for one where there was a bit of an incident and I was forced to take control of the command crew myself."

"What happened?"

"That's a story for another day. Lets see how those pirates are doing; it is rather difficult to actually get to Feron Station after all."

* * *

The Corvette crashed into the gravity well with such velocity that it had already succeeded in travelling some 300 kilometers by the time the pilot had gotten his hands back onto the controls.

It had made its way almost 500km into the gravity well by the time the reverse thrusters hit full power and it had made its way almost 600km in by the time the little corvette finally stopped moving forwards...

The crew all breathed out... which sent a collective exhalation of bad breath ricocheting around the deck and forced the Governor to scrunch his nose up to avoid losing his nose hair to the caustic odour. Then, with a collective happiness of a group of men who have just dodged death by the skin of their teeth, the crew began to cheer. At first it was just generic hoorahs, but pretty soon it became specific cheers relating to the Governor. In the small space the loud voices of the entire crew were deafening, and it didn't help that even the normally reserved Aaron joined in with the cheering with his exceptionally loud voice.

With that amount of excitement and stress, the Governor was on the verge of unconsciousness... the bad breath inevitably contributed to his dazedness and within seconds he had managed to render himself unconscious a second time in fewer than 4 hours. As before he was forgiven and the crew drank to their hearts content before ambling off merrily to sleep off the awful hangover that 'that rum stuff' always gave them. Having all been treated to several more rounds while the governor was unconscious they would likely sleep the next day or perhaps even two to avoid the hangover.

Perhaps due to the fact that clean air was now circulating within confines of the bridge the Governor awakened. He looked up, and was promptly offered a drink by Aaron – a drink he knew better than to accept – but which he accepted anyway. After swigging it down he turned to Aaron, but before he could say anything the Captain interrupted;

"I knew we could rely on you my friend. I never doubted you!" Then he remembered something and glanced at his chair. The governor followed his gaze and saw that the captain's mechanical hand had crushed the armrest into a very thin mess of steel. "Well... I might'a been a little nervous..." finished Aaron with a chuckle.


End file.
